Thoughts on Cary CD 303

I've had my 303 about 2 months...it replaced an Arcam Alpha 9 in my system. Detailed without fatigue, lovely mids, and in my system, very good bass. I play mainly classical, a bit of jazz, R&B & folk, but also rock...Beatles, Gabriel, Steely Dan, Stones, Talking Heads, REM, Who, Clash, Paula Cole..I dunno - is this stuff lite rock??? Some classical/jazz recordings are freaky realistic for player this price. Very natural timbres and big soundstage (width & depth) plus it handles complex musical passages in large scale classical very well. Built like a tank. My system: Alon V MkII speakers, Rogue 66 Preamp, Meitner MTR101 MkII monoblocks, SPM ICs, Coincident tri-wire speaker cable. Got interested in the Cary due to a friend's raving about it. Very happy so far. Upscale Audio was running a special on this player recently.

I have had a 303 and an SLI-80 Signature in my "office" system for about a week. They are replacing a Classe CAP150 and Meridian 508-24. The speakers are B&W 805N. The SLI-80 beats the Classe hands down for me. The 303 and Meridian each have their strong points. I find the Cary to be better for Classical and light rock. The Meridian has a deeper base. They are both excellent all around players. I am still switching back and forth and finding only minor differences, which I think says a lot for Cary. I work at a desk only 6ft. from the speakers, so listening fatigue is important to me.
The Cary set up has an edge for long sessions. Hope this helps somewhat.